Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

New Study Links Colic, Maternal Depression To Family Problems

Date:

May 29, 2005

Source:

Lifespan

Summary:

Some families with new babies face excessive infant crying, or colic. And some new mothers go through maternal post-partum depression (PPD) following childbirth. Neither situation is considered healthy, but a recent study published in the Infant Mental Health Journal has found that the combined impact of colic and PPD can have a highly toxic outcome. Researchers have linked colicky babies and maternal depression to decrease in overall family functioning.

Share This

Providence, RI -- Some families with new babies face excessive infant crying, or colic. And some new mothers go through maternal post-partum depression (PPD) following childbirth. Neither situation is considered healthy, but a recent study published in the Infant Mental Health Journal has found that the combined impact of colic and PPD can have a highly toxic outcome. Researchers have linked colicky babies and maternal depression to decrease in overall family functioning.

Related Articles

"We found that severe depressive symptoms in the mothers were related to fussy, or difficult infant temperament, more parenting stress, lower parental self-esteem and more family-functioning problems," says senior author Barry Lester, PhD with the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center (BHCRC) and Brown Medical School.

Dr. Lester founded the Colic Clinic at the Infant Development Center at Women and Infant's Hospital in Providence, RI, and is the foremost colic researcher in the country. His new book Why is My Baby Crying? was published last month by Harper-Collins and is touted as 'the parent's survival guide for coping with crying problems and colic'.

"Colic is ultimately defined by the parental threshold for infant crying," says Lester and his co-authors, "so one possibility is that cry-related problems like colic act as a catalyst for dysfunction in already stressed families."

Examples of family dysfunction might include poor communication, confusion over roles, difficulty in solving family problems, poor family interaction and a lack of emotional responsiveness.

Other studies have shown that depression can alter the way a mother perceives and responds to her baby's cry signals. In light of this, the authors conclude that the co-occurrence of infant colic and maternal depression might be especially risky for infant development outcomes such as behavior skills or forming relationships.

"Forty-four percent of the women showing up at the Colic Clinic are depressed which is pretty devastating and now we have evidence to show that it's harmful to the whole family," says Lester.

Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) has been described as the most common unrecognized postpartum complication and occurs in 15 to 20 percent of women following childbirth. According to the American Psychiatric Association, PPD symptoms include loss of pleasure or interest in usual activities coupled with sleep or appetite changes, loss of energy and/or recurrent thoughts of death for at least 2 weeks.

The authors hope the study will prompt pediatricians to ask more questions about parental and family well-being during an infant's regular check-up.

"By recognizing the potential risk that crying and maternal depression presents, pediatric healthcare providers have an opportunity to refer treatment that could potentially prevent future problems within the family," the authors conclude.

###

The study was published in Volume 26(1) of the Infant Mental Health Journal.

Founded in 1931 as the nation's first psychiatric hospital for children, Bradley Hospital (http://www.bradleyhospital.org) remains the premier medical institution devoted exclusively to the research and treatment of childhood psychiatric illnesses. Bradley Hospital ranks in the top third of private hospitals in the country receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health. As an affiliate of Brown Medical School, Bradley employs active clinical researchers. Its research arm, the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center (BHCRC), encompasses a wide range of research areas including autism, colic, childhood sleep patterns, HIV prevention, development in high risk infants, obesity, eating disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and juvenile firesetting. Bradley Hospital is a partner of Lifespan, a health care system based in Providence, RI.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Lifespan. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

More Mind & Brain News

Featured Research

Mar. 31, 2015 — During prenatal development, the brains of most animals, including humans, develop specifically male or female characteristics. But scientists have known little about the details of how this ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Video games not only sharpen the visual processing skills of frequent players, they might also improve the brain's ability to learn those skills, according to a new study. Gamers showed faster ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Differences in the way children and adults perceive the world extend to their sense of safety in their social and physical environments and this in turn can impact their health, say researchers. ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Searching the Internet for information may make people feel smarter than they actually are, according to new research. In a series of experiments, participants who searched for information on the ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — In addition to their physical injuries, women who are victims of domestic violence are also at a greater risk of mental health problems such as depression and psychotic symptoms. "We studied the ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — A unique pattern of immune molecules in the cerebrospinal fluid of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome have been discovered, providing insights into the basis for cognitive ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Children who get a taste of their parents' wine now and then may be more likely than their peers to start drinking by high school, according to a new report. The findings are based on 561 Rhode ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — Neuroscientists are taking inspiration from natural motor control to design new prosthetic devices that can better replace limb function. Researchers have tested a range of brain-controlled devices ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — Speaking in public is the top fear for many people. Now, researchers have developed an intelligent user interface for 'smart glasses' that gives real-time feedback to the speaker on volume modulation ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — To help scientists make sense of 'brain big data,' researchers have used data mining to create www.neuroelectro.org, a publicly available website that acts like Wikipedia, indexing physiological ... full story

Featured Videos

AAA: Distracted Driving a Serious Teen Problem

AP (Mar. 25, 2015) — While distracted driving is not a new problem for teens, new research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety says it&apos;s much more serious than previously thought. (March 25)
Video provided by AP

Many Don't Know They Have Alzheimer's, But Their Doctors Do

Newsy (Mar. 24, 2015) — According to a new study by the Alzheimer&apos;s Association, more than half of those who have the degenerative brain disease aren&apos;t told by their doctors.
Video provided by Newsy

A Quick 45-Minute Nap Can Improve Your Memory

Newsy (Mar. 23, 2015) — Researchers found those who napped for 45 minutes to an hour before being tested on information recalled it five times better than those who didn&apos;t.
Video provided by Newsy

Related Stories

Apr. 1, 2014 — Giving probiotics to infants with colic does not appear to have any benefit, according to a large trial. Infant colic (excessive crying of unknown cause) affects up to 20% of infants and is a major ... full story

Jan. 13, 2014 — Research evidence shows that symptoms of postpartum depression decrease over time -— but depression remains a long-term problem for 30 to 50 percent of affected women, according to a ... full story

Oct. 7, 2013 — There still appears to be insufficient evidence to support using probiotics (Lactobacillus reuteri) to manage colic or to prevent crying in infants, especially in formula-fed babies, but it may also ... full story

Dec. 11, 2012 — Infantile colic is a distressing problem, characterized by excessive crying of infants and it is the most common complaint seen by physicians in the first 16 weeks of a child's life. It is ... full story

Feb. 20, 2012 — A study of mothers and their young babies by neurologists has shown that mothers who suffer migraine headaches are more than twice as likely to have babies with colic than mothers without a history ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.